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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Photo-cakes already enter the arena of good taste with a severe handicap, since they tend to look a bit funereal (I've had a "Funeral Wrecks" post on hold for months now, because so many of them ARE photo cakes - kid you not.), so it certainly doesn't help when the wreckerator goes and does something like this:

That's the SAME photo, used twice. I guess whoever ordered this gave the bakery two to choose from, so they chose...both. Aside from (hopefully) being blindfolded while arranging the photos, the wreckerator also misspelled Bubie and Birthday (if you consider failing to cross the 't' a misspelling, that is.) S/he also couldn't even outline the photos right, but I guess we can chalk that up to the blindfold.

Bear with me for a second here..I promise I have a point. About 18 years ago I had a very nice boyfriend who, most unfortunately, was not aesthetically pleasing. In fact, strictly superficially speaking of course, he was quite ugly. Now I'm not trying to compare my ex-boyfriend to that hideous cake (though he was very sweet indeed), I'm just saying that if somebody captured the expression on "Bolie's" face when she first saw the cake, that photo probably looks very similar to the photo I snapped of my father the second he first laid eyes on my boyfriend at the airport. Ouch!

Actually, the double photo is a security feature. I have the same thing on my identification badge for work. It makes it more difficult for someone to arbitrarily paste a different photo into an existing name badge.

Clearly, "Bulie" works at an organization that uses cake for employee identification. (And at 85, too? I guess her 401(k) is doing as well as everyone else's.)

Kudos for this unsung decorator for clearly considering the security issues common to most photo cakes.

We had a photo cake at work, once -- granted, I work at Cornell university, and we were celebrating the anniversary of Spirit landing on Mars. It was decidedly less creepy to eat a Mars Rover cake than a person cake.

I'm looking at the cake a second time and see that Bulie could be having a "HaRRy" birthday and that in addition to being a sporadic t-crosser, the cake decorator is also a sporadic i-dotter (in birthday).

When I saw this it made me think of the photos that were mostly popular in the 70's and early 80's where you had a forward facing picture of the person (usually smiling) and a very serious profile shot mysteriously floating somewhere up in the upper corner.I don't know why...maybe it seemed like a miserable failure at that general effect?While photo cakes have their appropriate place (i.e. that much maligned Dr. Seuss cake we discussed) I don't think recreating cakey people are it necessarily.

I believe that the hideous nature of the florescent flowers is supposed to detract from the odd photos of poor Bulie. And for that matter maybe Bulie is really her name, she is quite old and they did use strange names back in the day.

As for your story Tantra...that would make a great photo cake for your Dad's next birthday. Doncha think?

I ate a photo cake at my friends' party a few years ago and the photo tasted awful! The edible image was so thick and nasty I had to scrape it off so I could eat the rest of the cake. Those should be banned.

I love that they cropped the picture to use it again. My guess is that they either lost the second picture and didn't want to fess up. Or maybe they thought it was a bad picture so used the one twice.

As for the uncrossed t's and dotted i's. Is this a case of the cashier gets the job of cake writing? Poor cashier is nearly done, someone shows up to pay for their cake, someone else comes in to order their cake, etc. By the time, they return to this cake, they completely forget that they weren't actually done with the lettering (crossing t, dotting i) and slip it into the box. I mean, its not like anyone's going to proofread the poor cake.

I'm guessing her formal name is Buelah (or some variation) and they call her Bulie. That still doesn't cover all the other issues on the cake. I'm so glad I mostly rake all the frosting off bakery cakes before eating anyway.

It is sort of trippy, having two of the same picture one one cake, but cropped differently and different sizes. The vine of sweet-peas (I'm guessing?) floating between the two only adds to the WuuuuuuEeeeeeeeeeeUhooo* quality. Maybe turning 85 is like entering an alternate dimension, so these sorts of cakes are comforting to Bubbies everywhere?

Starts off with a lovely little flourish on the "H," and it's all downhill from there.Bulie, in her picture, looks as if she's had one nip too many and is about to topple off her bar stool.Other than that, it's a...disaster. (I know, Dad- you always say, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all," but LOOK at this thing!) That shade of green for decorating gunk should be recalled and destroyed; it's just hideous. And the flowers...the flowers. ((SIGH)) Those wobbly borders...the double photo...I just don't get it; maybe the cake-maker is also in his/her late 80's (or greater) and has a few issues with, maybe, vision...hand shakiness...TASTE?

Maybe the photo in the corner was for the dear lady to take home to remember this fine cake. A miniature of the actual cake. Maybe? Just a thought. Not that I would want one to take home. It is kinda gross to think about eating myself.

Congratulations on your Weblog Award. I agree with the other posters that the vast discrepancy of votes between you and the other contestants is due to the fact that yours is really a humor blog, and food-related humor is better than a cooking blog any old day.

Wow...is it really that hard to write with icing? I mean...just to keep the writing level, intelligible, and centered? C'mon...I have carpal tunnel and my meds make me twitch sometimes and I can still write decently with icing!

I also perceive a rose bush in which the roses hang in mid air (well, icing), surrounded by leaves and branches that do not touch them.

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